Nations Ink Deal to Provide Safer Atomic Power
Date: 17-Sep-07
Country: AUSTRIA
Author: Mark Heinrich
Eleven nations joined five nuclear fuel-producing powers --
the United States, Russia, China, France and Japan -- which
formed the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership in a GNEP statement
of principles at a ceremony in Vienna.
The new members ranged from Kazakhstan to Poland, Jordan and
Ghana. Almost two-dozen nations were present as potential
candidates or observers including Canada, Libya, Turkey, South
Korea, Britain and other large EU states.
The GNEP aims over the next few decades to commission
proliferation-resistant nuclear reactors with assured
international supply of fuel, curbing dependence on oil and gas,
fuels blamed for greenhouse gases triggering climate change.
Washington said the GNEP was not directed against suspected
nuclear proliferators like Iran, which says it is enriching
uranium only for electricity not bombs, and would not require
developing states to renounce fuel production on their own soil.
But US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said that while the
GNEP was "not an exclusive club", only nations with a clean
non-proliferation record could take part under its covenant.
"It is an equal and voluntary partnership open to all
nations who ... agree to international accepted standards for a
safe, peaceful and secure nuclear fuel cycle," he told the start
of a GNEP ministerial meeting.
Global demand for electricity is forecast to almost double
by 2030 and rise by 150 percent in developing countries. Only
nuclear energy could satisfy this development pressure without
jeopardising the environment, GNEP proponents said.
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY CONCERNS
The UN nuclear watchdog chief welcomed GNEP in part
because it did not seem to undermine national sovereignty on
energy, a concern that has hampered various proposals for a more
secure multilateral system of atomic energy supply in the past.
"This has been one of the issues that has created a lot of
anxiety ... So this is very much an improvement and should
encourage more countries to join the partnership," International
Atomic Energy Agency Director Mohamed ElBaradei said.
But South Africa, a major developing nation invited to the
ceremony, did not show up, reflecting lingering fears the GNEP
could lead to certain technology restrictions, diplomats said.
ElBaradei told the meeting that much remained to be done to
get the GNEP off the ground.
He said a major challenge would be developing commercially
feasible nuclear reactors with fuel-recycling and waste disposal
minimising the risk of yielding plutonium usable for bombs.
After the ceremony ministers held closed talks on creating a
GNEP organisation that would attract more countries, hatch new
technology projects and establish sources of funding.
"GNEP is a way to share the promise of atomic energy without
the attendant risks of weapons proliferation since new entrants
to the nuclear market would have no need to produce their own
enriched uranium or dispose of nuclear waste in ways that might
give them weapons-usable plutonium," said Mark Fitzpatrick of
the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
"But the concept is based on unproven technologies. It will
take many years for the promise to be fulfilled."
